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A friend’s birthday was around the corner so he decided to treat us all to a boat fishing trip. It’s not that unusual. Men have been paying for the pleasure of other people’s company since the dawn of time itself. Lol. Sorry bro. I couldn’t help it.

I was late. It didn’t help that I parked at the opposite end of the carpark and that I had to lug my gear along. It wasn’t that much. Just a small tacklebox, a water bottle, a small ice box and my fishing rod, and some gear that I that I had to pass to some of the guys. But the odd handles didn’t go well together.

I wasn’t the latest to arrive though. Another dude arrived just after me.

With everyone ready to go and a few people sporting surprisingly heavy gear, we boarded the boat.

The boatman was friendly and assertive, stating that we were going to the South China Sea area and that our sinkers should be no less than size 6. We all looked around at each other as most of us had brought light tackle only. That was the plan after all.

The boatman looked around at us, gave a wry smile then headed to the wheelhouse and began to move off.

We were barely 6 metres from the docks when the boatman suddenly stopped the boat and began to re-berth.

He struggled to shout out from the wheelhouse as he was laughing, “You guys are on the wrong boat!”.

We disembarked from the boat to an audience of somewhat bewildered fellow anglers, the ones who had chartered this boat.

Just to confuse them, we shouted out loudly about what a great trip we had had.

Eventually, we found our boat, the Ocean Jumanji.

The boatman was more friendly and more accomodating and we were relieved when he confirmed that we were going to Changi, where light tackle works brilliantly.

We made way at a decent speed to our first spot where I very quickly hooked up this snapper.

With the pictures taken, I rebaited and recast out my line, suddenly realising that my little corner of the boat had suddenly become more crowded.

Barely 10 minutes had passed before I caught this guy.

My spot suddenly become much more crowded and in line with protocol, I made way for them although I stuck close by.

We drifted for about an hour before we started getting hits again.

5 minutes later:

10 minutes after Omar caught his flounder, my rod took a sudden dive and my Shimano Twinpower started to scream.

I fought what seemed to be a very strong fish for a few minutes before I brought him close enough for Mael to net him up.

My little corner of the boat was now full, because between the rod holders, there were people holding their rods and gingerly casting between the lines. I was inched out of my spot. I didn’t even have the opportunity to give up my spot.

15 minutes later, while crossing my line (but not tangling it up), Fendy hooked up this little guy with his tiny rod.

There were a few hits and a few misses but nothing that looked substantial and so we shifted spots.

About an hour later, while some were eating their lunch – Spaghetti Bolognese prepared and packaged by Titi, Hendrik hooked up this guy on a maprawn setup.

Barely a minute later, Hermann hooked up this fingermark.

And barely a minute after that, Hendrik caught this small Kaci (Sweetlips) on his other rod.

The fish were coming thick and fast, small though they were.

In the next minute, 3 more people got hookups.

Omar

Me and my little fingermark.

Han and his fish caught via jigging with prawns stuck on his hook.

We continued drifting for about 10 minutes but with no hits, the hardworking boatman moved us to a new drifting line.

Eventually, Hermann caught this pretty coral trout.

Shortly after that, Omar caught this small but pretty Orange Spotted Malabar.

Despite already paying for the boat, Omar had also brought along some snacks. He had also brought along a box of 5 Alpen strawberry bars. I was already hooked on them and since no one was taking any, I may have singlehandedly finished it. Possibly.

Just shy of 1pm, Fendy’s rod suddenly took a nose dive and he struggled a little to pull it out of the holder.

Before the cameras could start rolling, the fish had swum from the back of the boat to somwhere off the port bow.

He skillfully played with his baitcaster and kept tension on the line. I personally find baitcasters hard to use so I don’t really use them. It may be the other way around.

He struggled to reel the fish in as it started to turn around and head straight for him.

After a few muted arobatics, it eventually came close enough for Mael to net the guy and then we could clearly see that it was a Tek Ngor (a.k.a Giant Herring, a.k.a Tenpounder).

Fendy beaming with pride

While fendy was still glowing from the excitement and busy trying to get everything in order, I took the opportunity to slide my rod back in my corner holder.

10 minutes later, and with the boat now drifting to our right, Omar caught this small but feisty Queenfish.

But there were no more hits after that so the boatman brought us further out.

Which is where Along caught this little trout.

Half an hour later, and finding myself out of the corner spot again, I caught this little Kaci.

And a half hour after that, Fendy caught this little guy.

They were a handful of hits and misses after this but nothing was landed.

The wind was picking up and the currents were getting weird as by now we were along the East Coast Area. We tried our luck for the next 3 hours, with the boatman trying his best to put us on the fish but eventually we had to call it a day.

It was a great day of fishing with great company. I found myself reacquainted with the conveniences of fishing on a proper boat but still prefer a kayak, except for the ‘getting to the spot’ part.

The End

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Shawn started fishing in 1994. He caught his first fish (an Ah Seng) on that very first trip to Changi Carpark 4 (before it was barricaded). He built up his fishing knowledge and gear over the years but still keeps his old gear, just like the memories.

Day 2 came hot off the heels of a tiring work week but luckily my work finished early on Friday. Still didn’t get enough sleep though.

The briefing was much shorter this day. Everyone save for one was on time so we didn’t wait for him. Sadly though, he was supposed to buy the prawns for his team mate so when time came for the launch, I passed a handful of prawns to his team mate who was looking quite frustrated and disappointed.

On this day, we wasted no time and headed straight to Nigel’s Kaci spot. Well, almost. I did try out my grouper spot first but had no luck.

Nigel kept up his unusual tempo of catching many fish, of which many were too small. The cheeky bugger didn’t even tell me about it till he sent me the photos, and by that I mean I only realised this fact when I saw the photos.

Nigel’s grouper, 4cm of the minimum length of 30cm.

Lol. Seriously? Nigel’s.

Nigel’s Catfish (Ah Seng / Duri), just under 10 cm short of the minimum length.

Many cuttlefish (I call them all sotong to make it easy; though if I understand it correctly, sotong = squid, sotong katak = cuttlefish) in Pasir Ris waters. If I recall correctly, this was Nigel’s first cuttlefish on a kayak.

Another grouper by Nigel. Way too small but very pretty.

Yet another grouper by Nigel. Only just shy of the 30cm mark; minimum length for submission was 30cm. If I recall correctly, it was 27 or 28cm.

Eventually though, he managed to hook up another Kaci.

Nigel’s Kaci and first submissible fish.

In the mean time, I managed to land this guy. Though small, he was longer than the minimum length allowed and as we needed the points, I kept it, though only for a little while. He eventually snagged himself in a crevice in the shallows I was fishing, while on my stringer.

Hopefully, it’s still alive as I would have eventually released him even before the weighing, due to the low points (it had the lowest points out of all the submissible fish we caught) and our being over quota. We would eventually catch a total of 6 submissible fish, out of which we could only submit 4. The rules only a maximum of 4 submissible fish per day and any shortfall does not carry over to the event day the next week.

My smaller flathead. It was past the minimum length of 20cm. It eventually snagged itself in a crevice.

Shortly after catching this guy, I caught his dad. Unfortunately, no photos of the fish were taken while on the kayak. While I had not decided whether or not to release his dad (for the bonus points vs my wanting to try eating a flathead), it eventually died just before I reached the shore.

Then the skies threatened us with rain again.

Rain? Again?

Just before the skies seemed they were about to open, oddly (for the location he was at), Nigel caught a Chermin (Diamond Trevally).

Nigel’s second submissible fish. Though small, the points awarded to this Chermin (Diamond Trevally) were greatly increased due to the category this fish was in.

Though the wind was crazy, it didn’t rain that day.

Nigel kept it coming with his 4th grouper. Though submissible, we eventually released it as it was the second lowest scoring fish of our 6 fish and we could only submit 4.

Nigel’s grouper. Though submissible, we eventually released this guy back into the water because out of the 6 submissible fish we caught, this was the second lowest scoring fish, a were over our quota of 4.

During a lull in the fishing, we ate. As one does. I don’t usually eat while on the water. I would say that 9.8 times out of 10, I don’t eat while kayaking. I don’t get hungry after all (sometimes even after smelling food from nearby kayaks). However, sometimes…. Hey! This is a competition! There’s no need to take risks!

I don’t always eat while kayaking. In fact I try not to, and I’m almost always successful. I don’t actually get hungry while on the water but sometimes, a Sausage McGriddles with Egg calls out to me. Then it invites its friends, Mr Milkshake, and if its free, Mr French Fries (unless he’s all dressed up to go out, then, Mr Shaker Fries). He wasn’t free this day. 🙁

An unusual manifestation of ‘hat hair’.

I eventually moved off from here and headed back to my grouper spot, the spot I had found last week. Then I saw white out on my fish finder.

I had experienced something like this before. On that trip, there was white out on the fish finder and I managed to land 7 fish (lost an additional 1 because I forgot to close the clip on my stringer) in barely half a day of kayak fishing, all decent sized and of decent quality, and I wasn’t the only one either. Don, from SGYakAttack landed well over 20 fish that day (and he went back before me). I don’t believe anyone went home that day without catching at least 1 fish.

I immediately dropped my line and like last week, within 30 seconds of my line hitting the water, I landed a small Snapper. Unfortunately, no pictures of the fish were taken while on my kayak either. I managed to follow the white out for about 2 minutes before I lost it. Unfortunately, I could not get the Snapper on the stringer in time so when I was finally ready, the fish had gone. Also, by the time I got back to shore, the fish had died, which was unfortunate both for me (the points) and the fish.

By that time, we had only about 45 minutes left to get back to shore and so we headed back for the weigh in.

My catches of the day (2.082 points). One small Flathead escaped before the weigh in. Both fish were submitted for the points and unfortunately, both fish died before I could get them weighed.

Nigel’s catches of the day (1.494 points). Many other fish were released before weigh in. Nigel wanted to eat the Flathead and unfortunately, the Chermin (Diamond Trevally) died shortly after being caught. Unfortunately, this is normal and we communicated this fact to the organisers.

Most of the other teams were having a fairly good day as well. In particular, team Emerge, who was absent last week, suddenly shot up to 4th with a bumper haul of quality fish. After that jump, they were only slightly behind us on the points and gave us a good fright.

Team Emerge

Gabriel from team Emerge with 1 of his 2 KBLs (Barramundi).

Snapper from Matthew, from team Emerge.

Matthew from team Emerge. Absent from the first day of the competition, they climbed very suddenly and dramatically to 4th place, only just behind us, which gave us a massive fright.

Team Orca

Hermann (wife Siti in background) from team Orca with his catfish (sembilang). Despite gaining a massive points boost, they dropped to 7th due to being overtaken by team Emerge.

Team Sea Assasins

Nordin’s flat head. Despite gaining a large increase in points since last week, they remained in 5th after being overtaken by team Emerge.

SGYakAttack

Mathew from SGYakAttack with his 2 KBLs (Barramundi). He was the only member to launch today. They remained in 2nd place and had increased their points advantage over us.

Team Z Fighters

Alton from team Z Fighters with his KBL (Barramundi).

David from team Z Fighter and his Snapper.

David from team Z Fighter and his OTHER Snapper.

David’s Gao Tun (large Grouper). For all the fish they caught today, they remained the undisputed leaders. The team in 2nd place (SGYakAttack) had just under half of their points.

Shawn started fishing in 1994. He caught his first fish (an Ah Seng) on that very first trip to Changi Carpark 4 (before it was barricaded). He built up his fishing knowledge and gear over the years but still keeps his old gear, just like the memories.

I remember vividly, all those times that Nigel had me wake up early while he slept in, just so that we could go fishing all the way in the west, to get the ‘first-light-fish’.

Today the tables were turned. Except for the fact that I still had to wake up early. So retribution it was not.

At 5.30am, I was up. At 6.10am, I was out the door and on the way to buy Prawns from Changi. Fortunately, Changi Pro was open.

The inaugural Native League is a multi day kayak fishing competition open only to Native kayaks and related brands. It has a novel point scoring system (including bonus points for Catch and Release) which takes the weight of the fish and multiplies that based on rarity and quality, giving the points for that catch. It also includes a maximum daily quota of submissible fish and includes side games such as Catch of the Day (among others).

Showing what the buttons do on my Kayak.

Most of us (read as ‘I, and some others’) arrived within the registration window, some were late, including one of the organisers.

We set up our gear (and nibbled on snacks and sipped on milkshakes from the McDonald’s drive through) before making the rounds to look at the competition’s kayaks, some socialising, and some occasional comments to try and psych the competition out. Something along the lines of: “Look at this weather! Sure cannot get fish. I think better to fish just in front of watercross.”; then you try to hide your sly grin.

Then someone else would say something like, “I think better not launch today. Risky and not safe.” and you respond with an “Ya. I agree. Come let’s all stay safe here.”, while quietly pulling your kayak closer to the shore.

Those with “initiative” get to hit the water first. They also have the “honour” of leading others to their secret spots. Those who aren’t in the picture were the clever ones.

When the missing organiser finally turned up, we pulled our kayaks to the launch site in front of watercross. A not so small amount of time elapsed before we could get the briefing started.

When it finally did get started, the briefing was peppered with various participants trying to find loopholes in the competition format. It had an interesting scoring format with additional incentives for catch and release.

It also allowed up to 3 members per team, with the stipulation that only 2 were allowed on the water at any one time. Nigel and I made up team Lucky Strike.

The briefing.

As most of us knew each other well, there were flagrant offers of bribery to the organisers. There were also friendly accusations of cheating (Kelong!) to the organisers (as one of them had taken part in the competition). It was all in good fun of course.

I asked the drive through guy if the ice cream machine was ready, then asked for a strawberry smoothie. I wanted a milkshake.

Some minor upgrades since this photo was taken…

After the not-exactly-brief briefing, we were all set to launch and the organisers made a final pass around the kayaks to make sure no one was cheating.

One of the “side games”, as they were called, was the Catch of the Day. The first person to catch a specified fish would win an additional prize. Today’s CotD was any grouper. Despite this, no one ran to their kayaks, or pushed their kayaks into the sea before jumping in (like bobsled racing).

It was all very casual with only the slightest hint of urgency. Competitors peddled to their favourite spots or followed those who they thought they could steal fish off, all at a fairly leisurely pace.

Mathew’s Grouper; Catch of the Day prize. This single fish also put them in 2nd place, only slightly behind the leaders, team Z Fighters.

Mathew from SGYakAttack caught the CotD barely half an hour into the competition. It was at a location that I was planning to drift by.

Seeing that, I started to expedite my drifting by peddling but it was not fast enough so I pulled my line out of the water and headed straight there.

When I arrived, I was shocked to see, on my fishfinder, so much debris on the floor bed. Dropping my line to the bottom and the subsequent snags as I kept moving around the area confirmed that there were many discarded nets laying around. The last time I had been here, there were only a few structures and no nets.

I did manage to land a small flathead but it was too small to satisfy the minimum length required for submission.

I gave up after my 2nd or 3rd snag and allowed myself to continue drifting west to eventually meet up with Nigel.

When I eventually linked up with Nigel, he had managed to land quite a few fish, but very unusually, there were a lot of small fish, some of which even the most ardent ‘tao-pao afficionado’ would probably not have bagged.

Nigel’s Kaci

As I was about to reach his spot, he also hooked up a 2nd Kaci.

Nigel caught 2 Kaci.

Then came the distant roll of thunder.

Once I saw the rain wall approaching, I immediately pulled my line up and made plans to shelter at the nearby beach. However, Nigel dropped his lunch overboard and I had to go pick it up (it can be a pain to lift up the anchor, even with a small kayak, and especially with strong winds and currents and fast approaching rain – so since I was on the move and Nigel was still anchored, I went to help him out).

Seemingly out of nowhere, a school of students (pun intended) started to kayak their way past us. They were headed to OBS and just before they reached us, the heavens opened. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get the chance to deliver Nigel’s lunch to him before the downpour began.

OBS Kayakers attempting to paddle from Watercross to OBS. They had the wind to their advantage though. They made it there safely. Also, this is me in the process of delivering Nigel’s rescued lunch back to him.

Started getting heavier

Whiteout…

Throughout all this, Pochong and Omar from team FenOmMan were in the middle of the channel, though as we later found out, it was because they were fighting a big fish. A big fishing boat later went alongside them then went off. Even the Police Coast Guard paid them a visit then went off.

Near the end of the storm, barely visible, Pochong and Omar, with the big fishing boat.

Luckily it started to clear up. The wind died down and the rain becames ‘finer’.

If you haven’t noticed it yet, Nigel is teaching you how NOT to wear a disposable poncho.

How NOT to wear a poncho.

When the rain finally stopped, Nigel continued on at the same spot while I went in search of fish elsewhere. I headed to a nearby spot where I had seen some underwater structures before. That isn’t completely correct though. At the time, all I saw was one single stick.

I passed by Omar who told me what was happening with Pochong. Omar had stuck with Pochong throughout the fight, acting as lookout and cheerleader. Pochong was still fighting the fish. I wished them luck and continued on my way.

I couldn’t find my spot though so I began to drift back towards watercross. There was a cutoff time for the submission of catches for weighing.

Then I saw a small (height and area) underwater hill and decided to try my luck there.

My grouper, bringing in slightly over 1/3 of the day’s points for our team.

Within 30 seconds of my line touching the water, I caught this guy. He put up a decent fight too, all the way up to the surface.

After putting him on the stringer, I tried my luck around the area but caught nothing else, despite a few bites.

As I was manoeuvring around the area, I began to notice many more underwater sticks. I marked the positions of where the sticks were, creating a perimeter of digital markers on my fish finder.

I suspect it is a sunken kelong, or as some who use the more accurate term call it, a sunken marine farm. On the fishfinder, I also spotted what seemed to be some discarded netting, laying near the seabed.

When my line finally snapped from a snag, I called it a day and began to make my way back to watercross.

The weight of the fish was (suspiciously) exactly the average of Nigel’s 2 kaci (i.e. exactly 1/3 the total weight). Despite being in different categories, the points attributed to our fish were the same. However, because Nigel couldn’t release one of his kaci (due to it being dead), he missed out on the Catch and Release bonus so my fish accounted for 35.6% of the days points for our team.

We made our way back to shore for the weigh in. Each team took their turns to weigh their catch, and yell out their offers of bribery to the weighing officials, while standing right next to their competitors.

There was also a bit of a kerfuffle when I was releasing my grouper after the weigh in. Instead of swimming away, the grouper swam to the seabed, right next to our feet. Nordin tried to encourage it to leave by moving his foot close to it. While it did take the hint, it went in the wrong direction and swam circles around our feet, much to our horror. We had no choice but to dance a little and practise defensive kung fu. One of the officials whose feet were barely in the water also took a few steps back. Fortunately, after about 5 seconds, it got its bearings and swam to deeper waters.

Pictures were taken and the table of standings was updated and disseminated to the rest later that night. Though it was updated a few days after, giving team Z Fighters, already the leaders at the time, an even bigger lead. It was then updated again a few days after that to give them an even bigger advantage. *cough*kelong*cough.

Team Orca

Siti from team Orca with a Red Snapper. She was the only team member on the water this day. They were pushed up to 6th. She also had a massive haul of harvested Mussels but those were not submissible.

Team East Side Anglers

Daryl from East Side Anglers, catching the only fish for his team, with his Chermin, pushing them up to 4th.

Team Sea Assasins

Nordin from team Sea Assasins with the only fish of the day, a Parrot Fish. Because this fish was in it’s own category and had more points attributed to it, despite it’s small size, it pushed them up to 5th.

Team Z Fighters

Andy, from team Z Fighters, with the only fish for their team. This large fish pushed them up to 1st. Their points were modified twice before the next competition day, both times, enlarging their lead.

After the fish had been weighed and the day had been officially closed, Nordin relaunched his kayak out for more fishing. Within half an hour, and before we had even finished cleaning up our kayaks, he caught this guy.

Shawn started fishing in 1994. He caught his first fish (an Ah Seng) on that very first trip to Changi Carpark 4 (before it was barricaded). He built up his fishing knowledge and gear over the years but still keeps his old gear, just like the memories.

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Hermann and I headed into the river mangroves of Ubin to head to Mamam Beach for a short and relaxing overnight camping session. The rest of them launched later and took the long way around Ubin because they had sailing kayaks.
Song Credits:
Music by Joakim Karud http://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud
00:03 Joakim Karud - Almost Original

Kayak Exploring and Lunch-on-the-Beach with Nick and Wilson

Nick had been bugging me to join him for a beach lunch at this cool spot he found. When I finally found myself with some free time, we made a plan and called in Wilson, Nick's friend.
Song Credits:
Music by Joakim Karud http://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud
Joakim Karud - Dreams

The End Bits - Maldives Expeditionary Fishing Trip with Baktao.com - Part 4 in 4K [UHD]!

Nigel went for a very brief fishing session while I stayed back on the island to take some photos and videos before we left for Male. We spent our final 2 days just enjoying the views and relaxing as much as we could before catching our flight that would land us in Singapore at 4am-ish. Our little adventure came to a close.
Blog: http://www.singaporefishing.org/blog/
Youtube: http://www.singaporefishing.tv
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sgfishingblog/
Song Credits:
Music by Joakim Karud http://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud
00:02 - Joakim Karud - Hate It Or Love It
03:36 - Joakim Karud - Keep On Going
10:09 - Joakim Karud - Tropic
Music by Floppy Circus
SC - https://soundcloud.com/floppycircus
FB - http://www.facebook.com/floppycircus
06:22 - Floppy Circus - Temptation

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